CHAPTER 4 – Making an Impression –

When Rukia woke up she was sprawled in the thick grass near the pond. Ichigo's face barely 2 inches from hers. After a couple of moments of blushing ferociously she came to her senses and scrambled to her feet.

Judging by the sunset, Rukia came to the conclusion that it was.. None other than sunset. Before long, she realized what that meant.

"Shit!" She cursed, looking around for all of her belongings, and in the process waking the other teen.

"What?" He grumbled sleepily. She looked at him, horrified by his laid back disposition.

"We skipped all afternoon!" She exclaimed, flailing her arms for added effect. At this, he looked up and noticed the sun setting.

"Huh." He stated intelligently. "I guess so." She seemed even more disturbed by his reaction.

"Do you now what this means!? We could get detention.. Or Suspended! Or.." Suddenly Ichigo was on his feet, his large hand resting on her shoulder.

"Don't sweat it, kid." He assured. "It's not that bad, haven't you ever played hookie before?" Instead of exploding on him for taking it too lightly, she felt safer by his calmness.

".No" She stated quietly "Nii-sama would certainly not approve." She sighed.

Ichigo nearly laughed out loud.

"Would Nii-sama approve of anything in your life?!" He asked. She timidly shook her head no. "Then why even care?! If there's no chance of impressing him why even try?" She felt her defensiveness bubble up inside her.

"Because then you'd have no goals! Youd end up a low-life, no aspirations, no dreams.." she started, but Ichigo cut her off.

"And everything Nii-sama wants, you want too, huh? Sounds pretty much like the same thing, to me." He started to walk back towards the school. She was so flustered for a minute that she didn't follow him, but soon regained consciousness and chases after him.

"Hey! Slow Down! KUROSAKI!"

Ichigo hummed to himself as he walked through the halls to his locker where he found a rather disturbing sight. It had been written all over with black marker disgracing his family and father and even things such as his hair.

He hesitated for a moment taking it all in, then opened his locker, fished out his bag and stalked home, completely unaffected.

Watching the lanky teen leave the school was Renji and his gang, The flame-haired teen steaming.

"Jesus, Renji! That guy didn't care at all! No wonder Rukia thinks he's so coo—" Renji cut off his friend, forcing him into the wall and lifting him off the ground by his collar.

"Not. Another. Word." Renji growled through gritted teeth.

"Man, it was just a joke. Chill." The other boy said, rather angrily before brushing Renji's hand away.

"Let's go guys. Let Renji PMS in peace.." He said, before leading the rest of the guys out of the school, leaving Renji alone.

And Angry.

"So.. Rukia." Matsumoto said slyly, poking Rukia's shoulder and scaring her out of her daydream.

"Jesus! What?" Rukia asked loudly, turning around to face her friend.

"I just heard some juicy gossip.." She began, and Rukia's eyes squinted accusingly at her friend as she moved closer to Rukia's ear.

"About you and Kurosaki.." She whispered. Rukia stiffened, then began to laugh nervously.

"That's crazy! I don't even know him.." As if on cue, Ichigo walked into the room and offered his greeting only to her, as he walked to his seat at the back of the class. Once he sat he saw the short girl glaring at him.

So I'm not allowed to say hello anymore…

He was slightly hurt, did he embarrass her? Whatever. He opened his book, relaxed in his chair, and began reading until the teacher arrived.

Matusmoto smirked at her raven-haired friend.

"Riight." She said sarcastically, before walking back to the large group of friends.

Rukia sighed loudly before setting onto her project.

Ichigo was dragged out of the climax of his book when there was a knock at the side of his head, he looked to the ground for the opposing object, expecting it to be an eraser thrown at him by one of the jocks, but he only saw a crudely made Paper-Airplane that said 'Ichigo' in fine, cursive letters.

Curious, he picked it up and un-crumpled it.

We can't be so obvious about hanging out, they'll think we're dating or something.

Rukia

Ichigo stared at the sentence blankly, in truth, it had taken Rukia many a moment of blushing and reassuring words such as "We're not dating.. We're not.." Before she sent it flying off in the carrot-head's direction.

After a couple of moments he began working on his reply. And flung it in the short girl's direction.

Rukia felt the airplane attack the back of her head and she turned around to glare at her male accomplice, he only shrugged in response and went back to his book.

And.. Why do we care what they think?

She thought about it for sometime..

Because the rumor will spread through the school.. and..

After a while of thinking she came to the conclusion that it truly, didn't affect much.

What she didn't count on, were the feelings of he other male friend, and the gossip-rate of the Gotei 13.

Two extremely huge factors.

Though this Kuchiki strongly believe in the saying 'Better safe than sorry' and decided to extinguish the flames of jealousy and gossip before they got too hot.

As she approached the group of chittering girls she heard bits of their conversation.

"Kurosaki… Pond….. Kuchiki…. Sleep…. Kissing." Rukia stopped dead in her tracks as the heat rose to her face.

We had been pretty close when I woke up.. but had we been that close..? Her mind dashed to different, rather explicit images and decided to face the pack of females when she was a little less flustered. Luckily, at that moment the teacher walked into the class, giving her some time to sort her thoughts, not quite enough though because soon he had told them to find groups for something.

She was pulled out of her little mind-cocoon by a tapping on her shoulder.

If it's Matsumoto, so help me god..

She turned around to see her friend Tatsuki looking at her intently.

"Group?" She asked, as if it should make sense to Rukia.

"…What?" The Kuchiki asked, completely confused.

"For the trip! Would you like to be in a group with me and Orihime?" She explained.

"Ahh… Trip.. Yes.." she said without quite knowing what she had agreed to.

"Cool." Arisawa said simply before stalking off.

O..Kay.

She then realized the writing on the board.

Overnight Field Training

She looked around the room to see everyone happily making plans for the trip, except one boy, sitting all alone and looking rather miserable.

Not that he seemed particularly disappointed that noone was showering him with offers, but just that he was all alone was sad enough.

She trudged towards him, bringing his eyes back into focus.

"Yo." He said absent-mindedly.

"Hey Nosferatu, what's with you? Youre not joining a group for the trip?" He looked up at her with the most honest expression she'd ever seen.

"Noone would want me around." He stated simply, before averting his eyes. She felt like squeezing him to death, but she maintained her composure and kept cool.

"Have you even talked to anyone but me at this school?" She asked, genuinely curious.

"Ofcourse!" He stated matter-of-factly.

"Who?" Rukia asked, obviously unconvinced.

"Uh.. The Principal! The teachers!" He smirked victoriously and Rukia rolled her eyes, dragging him up by his arm.

"Come on. Ill introduce you to some people." He followed her around the big classroom like a lost puppy.

After he had been introduced to every single person in the class he sat down tiredly in his

Seat. Most of the girls had giggled loudly when him and Rukia approached, guys glared at them, and the couples glared at him too for interrupting their make-out moment.

The only people who accepted him (and even then, it was fairly half-hearted) were these weirdos….

(Super Flashback time!)

Ichigo and Rukia approached the table of misfits. As Rukia came into grabbing range, a boy from the table wearing the student uniform and with Chin-length wavy brown hair jumped up at her screaming her name. She seemed unaffected but Ichigo jumped into action, grabbing the guy and instantly pinning him against the table.

Rukia poked his shoulder.

"Down, Boy." She commanded, and earned a glare from him.

"Give her some space, kay?" He grunted to the boy, and he nodded his head sheepishly.

Even though their friend had just been attacked by Ichigo, the rest of them seemed taken to him… Or perhaps it had been because he had attacked the boy..

Their names were Asano Keigo, Yatsutora Sado, and Mizuiro.

Although Keigo had been slightly annoying, Ichigo decided he could survive being with these guys.

I don't have much other choice.. He decided.

(End of Super Flash back Time)

It's good that you've got friends to babysit you now, I have things to take care of.

"Okay.." Ichigo said, lost in thought and feeling slightly hurt that he was suddenly a burden.

Super Long! Well.. compared to my other chapters! Sadly, not much happened. But don't worry! Im working up to excitement, people!

Hope you liked it!

Cheers,

Bat